Home Office Organization–21st Century Style

Archive for July, 2009

A new article was published today on Computerworld in the Knowledge Base area of the website. Check it out.

Title: Study: Facebook use cuts productivity at work

Survey finds 77% of Facebookers use the social networking site while on the job

By: Sharon Gaudin

Summary:

The productivity loss overall in a company where employees use Facebook on the job for no business reason is 1.5%. This may not seem like much, but if your margin is 2%, this could mean the difference between closing and staying in business.

A previous study showed students who use Facebook at college get lower grades than students who don’t use it.

Why is this important to home businesses?

If you are cruising around on Facebook for non-business purposes during your work hours at home and thinking you are accomplishing anything, you may not be. When it is just you or you and an employee or two, you’ve got to make the most of your work so you can make the most of your profits.

The most important things you can do while working in your home office or at your home-based business are tasks specific to increasing your bottom line. If what you are doing is not directly putting more cash on your bottom line, you must start doing those tasks first and foremost every day.

Checking email, reading articles in your RSS feed reader, cruising social networking sites for pleasure (not doing research), and performing any task that doesn’t either make money or lead to making money must wait until after the important tasks are done.

You may need to scan your email for important work messages. You may need to scan your RSS reader for articles specific to your business. You may need to reply to a comment on Facebook from a business colleague. But those tasks need to be strictly limited to business and a tight leash needs to be on so they don’t sap your time. If you don’t focus on performing work tasks that make money, you might as well go to the park or play with your kids. The quality of your time would be much better spent.

Every day, do what makes money first, then you will be free to peruse email and articles, and socialize on social networking sites with friends.

If you don’t know how much time you’re spending on each task you perform, get out the kitchen timer and set it for one hour. In that one hour spend your time doing only money-making work, whatever that is for your business. You will be surprised to find at first you are distracted frequently and it will take at least a few days to be able to focus for just one hour.

Another thing you can do is keep a diary for a few weeks on every activity you perform in your business, notes on what you accomplish, how you will profit from it, and what time you started and stopped each task. If you are busy all the time but don’t seem to be accomplishing anything that is adding money to your bottom line, this technique will help you analyze where your precious time is going and what you need to change to improve.

If you spend a lot of time on the phone and need to block out time away from those interruptions, either turn off your phone ringer and let your voicemail catch messages, or send calls to an answering service. Then schedule time each day when you will return calls. You may need to tell people you will return their call within 24 hours, or leave a specific message that you are in a meeting from x-y and will return to your office at z. You don’t have to leave your office to have a meeting with yourself, but those calling don’t need to know that.

Get a handle on your business. Don’t just work in it, work on it. A helpful book to read to improve your business and increase your productivity is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber:

Don’t have time to read? Here is the book on CD that you can listen to in your car or load to your mp3 player and take with you:

Sherri Joubert
Getting more productive

Technorati Tags: home office organization, home-based business, make home office profitable, Productivity, social networking, time management, time-wasters

Hi Everyone,

This is a little unexpected…

Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick just sent me an
urgent note to let you know they are very briefly
opening up their powerful blogging coaching
program again.

Why?

Well, they said that they got HEAPS of people that
missed out because of the 4th of July Holiday
in the United States last week.

And they wanted to give those folks another chance to
join their fantastic program, along with all the
other 420 students who’ve already signed up this
time around.

So, if you missed out last week for whatever reason, this is your chance to get in!

They’re opening doors on Tuesday, July 7th at 2pm
EDT (U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings Time), and they said they’ll shut the doors again 24 hrs after that, July 8th
at 2pm EDT.

Here is the page where you can sign up:

All my best!

Sherri

PS: Don’t forget that they’re only keeping doors
open 24 hrs this time to give you the opportunity
to sign up in case you missed out last week
because of the holidays. So make sure you don’t
miss out this time, ok?

Technorati Tags: Become a Blogger Premium, blogging coaching, blogging course, Gideon Shalwick, Yaro Starak

Tomorrow, July 7, at 2 pm U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings Time, Become-A-Blogger Premium will reopen for 24 hours only.

So come back here tomorrow at 2 EDT to sign up if you missed out last week!

Doors will close again at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 8.

Don’t miss out!

Technorati Tags: Become a Blogger Premium, blog coaching program, blogging course, Gideon Shalwick, Yaro Starak

24 hrs to go before you miss out!

Get access NOW or wait another 6 months!

I hope this is not too late…

http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/

There are two very important things you need to
know right now…

The first thing:

Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick just told me that
they’ve added an extra, unannounced bonus to their
famous blogging coaching program.

It’s a LIVE teleconference call, exclusively for
new members, that will reveal EXACTLY how you can
figure out the right niche/topic for your blog -
one of the hardest things to do when you’re just
starting out.

On this call, you’ll be able to interact
personally with Yaro and Gideon, and finally get
to the bottom of any questions you have related to
the topic of your blog.

http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/

The second thing (time critical):

There are only about 24 hrs left before the doors
close to the Become A Blogger Premium program.

This is your last chance to get into this world-renowned
course that shows you, step-by-step, with
instructional videos, how to become a successful
blogger.

They’re closing doors at midnight on Friday, July
3rd…11:59 p.m.

So, if you haven’t already, you can still take
advantage of their generous offer and sign up
here:

http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/

More than 1,000 people have already gone through
the course, me included, and now is your chance to join the new
intake of members so that you too can set up your
very own successful blog.

How much has this blog made? This blog has earned $94.87 in the past 6 months, primarily from advertising. You don’t have to actively sell your own or affiliate products to make some money from your blog.

That may not seem like much money, and it isn’t in the full-time income realm. But this blog alone more than covers all the expenses for all my blogs and websites each year. Anything I earn on other blogs or sites is pure profit.

Is this a get-rich-quick thing? No. But you can start earning extra money from your blog, and the amount will grow over time regardless of where the money comes from, advertising, sales, or both.

Here’s to your blogging success!

Sherri
Blog Mastermind and Become-a-Blogger Premium graduate

Here’s the link again:

http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/

Technorati Tags: Become a Blogger Premium, blogging course, Gideon Shalwick, how to blog for income, Yaro Starak